An Old Painting
by MissPickleInspector
Summary: A one chapter story. What happens when Nira Israel pulls Germany aside and shows him the old painting of Chibitalia?


The serious middle-eastern girl sat across for Ludwig and Feliciano in a meeting. Her eyes were on Ludwig the entire meeting, causing Gupta to wonder. After the meeting ended, and most everyone, including Feliciano, had already left, Nira stopped Ludwig before he could leave. "Sit," She commanded.

Ludwig tried to excuse himself. "I need to go and-"

"SIT." Her face was serious and blank. Ludwig dutifully took a chair.

"So what do you want to tell me?" Ludwig scowled.

"Well, it's not so much what I want to tell you," She reached under her chair and pulled something out of a small black bag, "But what I want to show you."

The thing she pulled out looked like the back of a canvas. It wasn't a big picture, maybe 6 by 12 inches. There was some old writing on the back in a child's script.

"Now, I was looking through some of the old things I had from the days when I was conquered by the Crusaders, and I found an old picture in my closet."

"And what, exactly, does this have to do with me?"

"Simple. I think you would know the artist very well," Nira smiled quietly as she turned the painting around.

The colors were quiet, simple. It was a young girl… thought looking at it harder, it may have been a boy. The person were asleep, their face calm and tranquil. Their outfit was peculiar, a maid's dress really. But what struck Ludwig was how tender the brushstrokes were, how every line of paint was careful and delicate, as thought every bit of the artist's soul had been poured into that painting. But that curl… had he seen it somewhere before?

Feliciano skipped in the halls of the meeting building. Japan had let him listen to his music before the meeting, and it was so pretty… Japan's girls have such nice voices! Let's see… the song was called… Wakaramai nomo? No… it was… Kawaranai mono! That's right. I should go tell Ludwig! "Hey Ludwig!"

Only silence answered instead of the usual reserved '…Yes?'. Where was Ludwig? Not knowing anywhere else to go, Italy skipped back to the meaning all the while yelling gleefully one word. "DOIIIIIII~TSUUUUU~!"

"It's a maid." Ludwig said, straight faced.

"Not just any maid. Remember back a long time ago, you lived with the Habsburgs?"

"…I can't say I do…"

Nira knew this was going nowhere. So she flipped the painting over again.

On the back was a carefully written message. 'She was the one who taught me; I should at least repay her. I don't know it I'll give it to her, though. I nearly explode by standing next to her.'

Silence fell in the meeting room, as realization dawned in Ludwig's mind.

"Why… why didn't I remember? I had promised her all of my body and soul. But I forgot… and now she's-" Ludwig's throat seized up with an unfamiliar feeling. What was it? Not sadness, not anger, not quite jealousy but…

Guilt?

"She?" Nira broke into Ludwig's internal struggle with a soft smile, "No, no, it's _he_."

"DOIII~TSUUU~!" The door opened, revealing the hyper male with the singular curl behind it.

Both Nira and Ludwig looked up. Feliciano stopped and peered at the square thing on the table in front of Ludwig. "Ludwig, what is that?"

"An old painting. I painted it long ago… Back before the German Confed..er..ati..onnn-What are you doing?"

Feliciano had grabbed the painting and was now studying it. "Look Nira!" He turned so Nira could indeed see it, "It's little me!"

"Yes I know, Felici. You looked like a girl back then."

"I know! Roderich seemed to think I was a girl! How weird…"

Germany sat with his elbows on the table, and his head in his hands. Quietly he was mumbling to himself, "ican'…"

"Ludwig?" Feliciano quietly mumbled.

"Yes, Feliciano?" Ludwig replied, not lifting his head from his hands.

"If you painted this long ago… doesn't that mean you're Holy Roman Empire?"

"Yes. Yes, it does, Italy."

"Do you… still remember?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

"Even?"

"Yes."

"Shall I go…?"

"You don't have to."

"But I want to!"

"Then why are you asking?" Germany finally looked up. Feliciano's eyes were wide open, exposing that beautiful chestnut color he had fallen in love with in the 900's.

"Because I want to make sure." Feliciano smiled at this, kissed the tip of Germany's nose and resolvedly skipped away.

"Quite a weirdo he is." Nira chuckled.

"That he is. But he's my weirdo. Well, I have to make sure he won't burn the kitchen down."

"Okay…? What're you guys talking about?"

"Oh. He promised to make me lots of sweets for my return back all those years ago. He wants to make tham now I guess."

"I see. You want to keep this?" Nira said, holding the painting in one hand.

"Sure." Germany took it out of her hand and smiled at it. "Maybe I'll hang it up. Like I meant to before I forgot about it."

"Sounds like a good plan."


End file.
